SINGAPORE, Aug 4 — Two firms here have been issued with stop-work orders and fined after recent inspections found unsafe conditions at their worksites, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a Facebook post today.
The two companies, CAD Associates and KHC Development, were handed fined amounting to S$21,000 (RM67,894) and S$20,000 respectively.
Sebastian Tan, MOM’s director of occupational safety and health inspectorate, labelled the conditions at the two worksites as “appalling and unacceptable” and called on contractors to step up their efforts to keep worksites safe for workers.
Enforcement efforts have been ramped up with stiffer penalties imposed on companies with poor workplace safety and health practices to curb the spike in workplace fatalities, the ministry said.
Among the breaches found at the two worksites were:
- Lack of effective and adequate fall prevention in place, such as having barricades and proper work platforms, for people working at heights
- Lack of barricades and toe-boards at the sides of raised working platforms, risking loose materials falling over the edge and injuring workers below
- Lack of safe access for workers to get to higher work areas
- Worker seen jumping from the rooftop onto an external scaffold, which could result in him tripping and falling from height Unsafe makeshift platforms posing imminent danger to workers crossing over the area
- Scaffold erected by untrained workers, placed in an unsafe manner on the next roof, with unsecured access onto the scaffold Usage of unsafe work platforms that had missing sole plates, lack of proper access, unsecured decking, and missing toe-boards and guardrails
To lift the stop-work orders, companies must rectify all unsafe work conditions, engage third-party auditors to assess their workplace safety and health management systems, develop action plans based on the audit findings and set up closed-circuit television cameras at places where high-risk activities are being carried out.
The latest enforcement action came in the midst of an increase in the number of workplace fatalities over recent months. A total of 27 deaths were recorded in the first half of the year, almost double that for the same period in 2019.
MOM’s statement also came as CapitaLand Retail Management was charged in court with safety lapses following the death of a worker who fell through a false ceiling more than two years ago. — TODAY
